(1) Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an image forming apparatus, such as a copier and a printer.
(2) Related Art
Conventionally, proposals have been made of methods for printing confidential documents with the use of image forming apparatuses such as copiers, printers, and fax machines.
As one example of a method for printing such confidential documents, Patent Literature (Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 2010-3006) discloses a method of utilizing authentication print jobs. More specifically, when an image forming apparatus connected to an external terminal via a network receives an authentication print job from the external terminal, the image forming apparatus does not immediately execute (print out) the authentication print job so received. Instead, the image forming apparatus first stores data for the authentication print job to a storing unit composed of a hard disk or the like. Here, note that the authentication print job is transmitted by the external terminal according to an instruction provided by a user. Following this, the user travels from the external terminal to the image forming apparatus and performs user authentication by inputting a user ID and a password from a user operation unit provided to the image forming apparatus. When user authentication is successfully completed, the image forming apparatus reads out data for the authentication print job from the storing unit, and executes (prints out) the authentication print job.
As such, when the authentication print job technology is applied, printing of authentication print job documents is executed only when user authentication is successfully performed on the image forming apparatus. This technology has an advantageous effect of avoiding the risk of printed documents being seen by others besides the user having requested for printing thereof. This effect is particularly evident in a case where a user operating an external terminal located distant from an image forming apparatus issues a request for printing a certain document with respect to the image forming apparatus. In such a case, the user has to travel to the image forming apparatus in order as to collect the output document, and there is a risk of the printed documents being exposed to others while the user is traveling towards the image forming apparatus if the printing of the document is performed automatically. The authentication print job technology eliminates such a risk, and thus, maintains the confidentiality of the documents.
When the authentication print job technology is applied, an authentication print job is executed by an image forming apparatus when the image forming apparatus has already received data for the authentication print job at a point where the user having issued the job performs input of information required for user authentication such as user ID and the like, and further, after user authentication is successfully performed. The user performs the input of necessary information from a user operation unit provided to the image forming apparatus.
However, cases may exist where the reception of data for an authentication print job is still in progress when a user is performing input of information required for user authentication with respect to the user operation unit. Such cases may arise due to network congestion taking place, the amount of data for an authentication print job being enormous, and etc.
If the reception of data for an authentication print job is still in progress at a point where the user performs input of information required for user authentication as in such cases as described in the above, the user is caused to wait in front of the image forming apparatus. In specific, the user has to wait for the completion of the reception of data and for the eventual completion of printing of the authentication print job.
However, the technology disclosed in Patent Literature 1 does not provide a structure for informing a user of the amount of time the user has to wait in front of the image forming apparatus for the completion of the reception of data for an authentication print job.
Since the amount of time required until the completion of the reception of data for an authentication print job differs according to the data amount and the like for each authentication print job, the user is caused to wait in front of the image forming apparatus without any idea of how long he/she would have to wait, even in cases where it actually takes a great amount of time until the completion of the reception of data. This is inconvenient from the user's point of view, since, if only the user were informed of the long period of time he/she would be caused to wait, the user would be able to work on other tasks and the like, instead of wasting time by waiting for a long time.
Additionally, the printing of an authentication print job is executed when a corresponding user authentication operation is successfully performed by the user. That is, user authentication needs to be successfully performed for each authentication print job. This is troublesome from the user's point of view. For instance, when the same user issues two separate authentication print jobs A and B, and the image forming apparatus receives data for the authentication print job B while executing the authentication print job A, the user has to perform a separate user authentication operation corresponding to the authentication print job B after the execution of the authentication print job A is completed.
One countermeasure for avoiding such a troublesome situation is to enable successive printing of the authentication print jobs A and B while requiring for the user to perform an input operation only once, for instance. However, this countermeasure does not provide a perfect solution. There are cases where data relating to multiple authentication print jobs are not continuously transmitted to the image forming apparatus for reasons such as network congestion. That is, the reception of data for the authentication print job B may be delayed with respect to the reception of data for the authentication print job A.
When the reception of data for the authentication print job B is delayed as in such a case, the execution of the authentication print job B is delayed accordingly. Therefore, so as to avoid others from viewing the printed documents and thus, to maintain confidentiality, the user having issued the authentication print jobs A and B is caused to wait in front of the image forming apparatus until the printing of the authentication print job B is finally completed.
Further, when the user having issued the authentication print jobs A and B is caused to wait in front of the image forming apparatus for a great amount of time, other users are unable to perform input operations for user authentication from the user operation unit for an extended period of time. This results in reduced convenience of the image forming apparatus.
In view of the above-mentioned problems, one aim of the present invention is to provide an image forming apparatus that realizes enhanced convenience in the execution of authentication print jobs while maintaining confidentiality.